by Sujit Das
Truth and logic are two biggest enemies of Islam. Toland (cited Gunny, 1996, p. 168) wrote, “ He [Muhammad] clearly saw that the spirit of inquiry would not favor him. This is how Islam maintained itself”. Muhammad recommended blind faith without question and absolute obedience because of his inability to teach the faith intelligibly. This is how the Prophet of Islam succeeded and his religion survived for more than fourteen centuries. He had done whatever he liked in the name of Allah because all his actions counted as the divine will. He claimed that he had no choice but to act accordingly. Thus, whatever may happen to the others, Muhammad always remained blameless.
Muhammad’s strong dominance urge motivated him to rise above his fellow-beings. He sought distinction by imposing his will on others. A book like Qur’an was essential for him to achieve his goal. The psychologists say that the most effective way of securing dominance is by arousing someone’s fear. The second one is favor. Whatever man does, he does out of fear or to gain favor. Muhammad had very skillfully exploited man’s psychological mechanism, which consists of fear and favor. In Islam the very idea of paradise and hell is based on this. Qur’an repeatedly told Muslims to fear God.
While other religions like; Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Jainism took a straight path; Islam proliferated in a wrong direction because the defining core belief of Islam is wrong. It is nothing but the paranoid delusion and hallucination of an ordinary early-medieval unlettered Arab businessman. Putting such vain self-delusion on a par with the profound insights of a Shankaracharya, a Christ, a Buddha, a Confucius, a Mahavira Jain, a Laozi, a Socrates, a Plato, or a Gandhi, is plainly absurd. The words like “lack of understanding” and “ a lack of a desire to understand
” are simply eyewash. The simple truth is that everything is fake in Islam. The God is a fake, the Prophet is a fake and God’s message is also a fake. The Western critics of Islam know this very well.
Chapter 2: Muhammad’s Neurotic Disorder and Hallucinatory Confusions
“Nothing is too wonderful to be true”.
Michael Faraday (1791 - 1867)
“[But] we also know how cruel the truth is, and we wonder whether delusion is not more consoling”.
Henri Poincare (1854 - 1912)
2.1: The Mystery of Cave Hira
Due to some reasons, Muhammad loved the seclusion of a cave in Hira. Tabari (VI.67) recorded that loneliness became dear to Muhammad, and he used to seclude himself in the cave where he would engage in the Tahannuth (pagan religious rites performed in Ramadan that included fasting) worship for a number of nights before returning to Khadija and getting provisions for a like period.
Muhammad’s this type of behavior was not normal. After all he was a family man with a rich wife. He could get the desired seclusion in his home to practice his religious rituals. If God is everywhere, then why the privacy of a cave was essential? He was not much religious until he was visited by the angel Gabriel. Were these religious rituals actually lame excuses? Was he depressed?
Cave Hira is no more than 3.5 meter by 1.5 meter in length and width (Sina, 2008, p. 154). This is the size of a small toilet. What Muhammad used to do in this small space? Since he liked loneliness, then it is obvious that he used to close the small entrance of the cave. Few days and night deep and pointless thinking (fantasy daydreaming), not having proper food and water, lack of oxygen inside the cave, mental fatigue – does this entire thing caused a hallucination? Was it his initial stage of madness? This is a possibility we cannot ignore.
2.2: The Strange Subconscious Mind
“There are in the mind processes and purposes of which one knows nothing at all, has known nothing for a long time, and has even perhaps never known anything”.
Sigmund Freud
Muhammad was sincere in his claim of prophethood. He had a genuine and deep religious conviction which proved his sincerity. Toynbee (1935, p. 468) wrote, “ Muhammad actually thought that he was sacrificing his worldly prospects. He cannot have suspected that he was on the road to making his worldly fortune ”. But, sincerity is not a proof. Some people may sincerely believe in the existence of ghosts, whereas others may sincerely disbelieve in it. If someone’s sincerity can be taken as an authentic proof, then whose sincerity is to be taken into account?
Muhammad was not the first person who claimed to have received messages from God. Throughout the recorded history of mankind, there are literally hundreds of thousands of people who declared themselves as a spokesman of God. Even today, in the mental hospitals and in the cult scene, we can find many mentally disordered and strange people who, likewise, believe to be regular recipients of messages from some unknown divine sources. They are “honest” in their claim and “sincere” in their declaration. Often those people manage to make others believe in their claims too. Many of them set themselves up as cult leaders, revered by a group of followers as their direct “telephone line” to God or the spirit world.
The human mindset is strange. If we dip into psychology textbooks, we will find hundreds perfectly bona fide cases of people who in a state of hallucination hear things and see visions. Often, they do not agree that these are hallucinations, and claim quite genuinely that they have never seen or heard all these before. However, an objective study of their cases shows that these are simply fresh associations produced by the unconscious working on things, which have been seen or heard once but forgotten. It can be proven that there was a time (often not a very remote) when these things were familiar and conscious, even if they are no longer today. As Sagan (1997, p. 131) wrote, “ Snatches of song or foreign languages, images, events that we witnessed, stories that we overheard in childhood can be accurately recalled decades later without any conscious memory of how they get into our heads ”.
Before we proceed further, it is intended to discuss a bit on conscious and subconscious mind. We know something about our conscious mind as we can make certain presumptions about our consciousness. Consciousness is the fact of the awareness of our thinking, feeling, and doing. These conscious acts are sometimes termed as conscious mind. The conscious mind represents only ten per cent of the total capacity of the human brain. It sleeps when the person sleeps; it is more straightforward and logical, and is focused in terms of activity on the left hand side of the brain for the majority of people. Similarly, certain acts are performed without conscious awareness. They arise from the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind represents ninety per cent of the total capacity of the human brain. It is focused on the right hand side of the brain.
Subconscious mind is the sum total of our past experiences. What we feel, think, or do forms the basis of our experience. These experiences are stored in the form of subtle impressions in our subconscious mind. Some scientists say that the subconsciousmind stores all possible experiences of a lifetime (Shrikhande, 2009, p. 191). The subconscious mind is awake when we are asleep. These impressions often interact or commingle with one another and give a strange outcome. On coming with contact with certain external factors the necessary conditions are fulfilled, and these subtle impressions surface in their manifest form. Often this resultant impression is so strange that the person himself cannot recognize it, and then he thinks that it is generated from an external source. As Tomkins (1995, p. 55) said, “There are many ways of ‘knowing’ anything”. These “memories” are called false memories and they are so strong that they often replace reality. In fact, it is the task of psychoanalytic treatment to make conscious everything that is pathologically subconscious, i.e., to recollect the “missing” memory, and if necessary, to replace the false memory with it.
The genius of the subconscious mind had fascinated the poets, philosophers and psychologists alike. Kant describes subconscious mind as “ immeasurable … field of obscure ideas” (Jung, 1933, p. 1). The ancient intellectuals had fully accepted the existence of a subconscious mind though they had nological explanation for this (Tallis, 2002, p. 5). However, the present day psychologists have realized that the s
trange performances of subconscious mind are not at all supernatural or divine as it was thought to be, but purely natural and earthly. It was Sigmund Freud who for the first time denied any supernatural basis of subconscious mind and hence his work was pretty original (Talvitie, 2006, p. 34). Freud’s idea on subconscious differed to a great extent from those of his contemporaries (Zarctsky, 2004, pp. 15-40). Freud also created a consistent system through which the human actions could be interpreted in terms of subconscious aims and memories, and with this help, the psychic disorders can be treated. In a brief, Freud put forward the idea that psychic disorders are related to subconscious mind and this plays an important part in the development of neurosis.
2.2.1: Subconscious Mind and Neurosis
Carl Jung, the famous student of Freud and an equally-gifted psychoanalyst, had established many concepts in psychoanalysis and psychiatry which are now fundamental in the study of the mind. Jung (1933, p. 1) agrees with Freud that it is the subconscious that plays the major part in the development of neurosis. Jung’s hypothesis on subconscious mind and neurosis is very important for dream-analysis because dream-analysis stands of falls with the acceptance or rejection of it. The dream-analysis of Muhammad is an important part of this chapter.
There are various causes of neurosis. Anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress are the main causes, and in rare cases; stroke, schizophrenia and epilepsy can also cause neurosis. Technically speaking; neurosis is actually an outdated diagnosis that is no longer used medically. The disorders that were once classified as a neurosis are now more accurately categorized as neurotic disorders. Patients who are suffering from neurotic disorder have behavioral problems. There is an unusual shift in mood, energy, activity levels, and the instability while carrying out day-to-day routine tasks. A neurotic is such an odd person who can never have things as he would like them in the present, and for the same reason he can never enjoy the past. Such a person never learns the art of life.
Depression is one of the major causes of neurotic disorder. Statistics show rise in the frequency of cases of mental depression for men at the age of forty and for women the neurotic difficulties occur somewhat earlier – between thirty-five and forty (Jung, 1933, p. 104). This is the time a significant change in the human psyche takes place. We should not forget that around the age of forty Muhammad claimed to have commenced receiving Allah’s revelation and started a new chapter of his life.
Muhammad was obsessed with rituals. This indicates that he was suffering from obsessional neurosis. According to Freud, obsessional neurosis is the direct outcome of subconscious mental processes. In this disorder, the patient is bound to obey some rules though he does not know where it came from, what it meant or to what motives it owed its power (Strachey & Gay, 1966, p. 344). This strange “force” is so strong that the patient may struggle against it, or decide to transgress it, or rage against it – none of this makes any difference to him carrying it out. The rule is to be obeyed, and the patient asks himself vainly why. This compulsive force originates from subconscious mind and has a strong influence to the conscious mind. Muhammad had explained every minute detail on how to wash one’s face, nose, ears and hands. He had also instructed how many times a Muslim should pray and how and which direction it is to be performed. For Muhammad these were very significant. Bukhari recorded,
Narrated `Abdullah bin `Amr: … We were just passing wet hands over our feet (and not washing them properly) so the Prophet addressed us in a loud voice and said twice or thrice: ‘Save your heels from the fire’ . (Bukhari: 1.3.57).
A patient suffering from obsessional neurosis can spend hours even whole day and night to conform to the imposing rules. Muhammad never maintained a proper personal hygiene. He was filthy and lice-ridden (Muslim: 49.4699; Bukhari: 4.52.47), but it never bothered him. He was more worried about washing feet to save the heels from hellfire. For the patient, obsessional ideas and obsessional impulses are, of course, themselves conscious but anything more than the performance of obsessional actions escapes conscious perception. The whims would not have become symptoms if they had not forced their way into consciousness.
This is the incredible strength of subconscious mind. Dostoevsky embraced the mystery of subconscious in his novels (Talvitie, 2006, p. 32) and in Homer’s poems the subconscious appears as an internal mechanism that receives the wishes of God (Claxton, 2004, p. 61). As Freud (Strachey & Gay, 1966, pp. 344-5) explains, “ [The compulsive force] gives the patient himself the impression of being all-powerful guests from an alien world, immortal beings intruding into the turmoil of mortal life – these symptoms offer the plainest indication of there being a special region of the mind shut off from the rest”. As Fromm (1978, p. 18) observed, “… in view of the nature of the unconscious mind, the influence of the unconscious upon us is a basic religious phenomenon”.
This is perfectly normal. When the neurotic patient cannot find any logical explanation; often thoughts of God, divinity, spirituality, paradise, hell, certain end of the world, divine mission, etc., comes in his mind. By mistake he may take it as a sign of some kind of “spiritual enlightenment”. Such a person is often found to have such an unexpected amount of strong will and quiet resolve, bordering on stubborn obstinacy that his whole soul becomes absorbed in his aspirations and he seems more possessed by his ideas than possessing them. On top of this, if the person is illiterate and superstitious, there are more chances that he would fool himself more easily. This very self-assurance of “being enlightened” may make the person a saint (Mother Teresa) or a monster (Muhammad and many similar cult leaders).
Such was the case with Muhammad. His subconscious mind played a trick on him causing much mental disturbance. Being illiterate and superstitious, he could not find a logical explanation. Muhammad’s first experience with Gabriel was strangely very similar to the experience of one of his close friends, Hassan Bin Thabit. Hassan was a poet of Medina, who later became Muhammad’s personal Poet Laureate. Hassan came to write poetry under the influence of afemale jinni. Macdonald (cited Zwemer, 1908, pp. 126-7) wrote, “ She [the female Jinni] met him [Hassan] in one of the streets of Medina, leapt upon him, pressed him down and compelled him to utter three verses of poetry. Thereafter he was a poet, and his verses came to him … from the direct inspiration of the Jinn. He refers himself to his ‘brothers of the Jinn’ who weave for him artistic words, and tells how weighty lines have been sent down to him from heaven”.
There is an extraordinary parallel between the terms used in thestory of Hassan’s encounter with the female jinni and the accounts of Muhammad’sfirst confrontation with Gabriel. The expressions Hassan used are exactly those used of the sending down, i.e., revelations of the Qur’an. Did Muhammad’s sick mind play a trick on him, recapture Hassan’s story and subconsciously pass it off as his own?
Muhammad himself, his wife Khadija and the early followers mistook his hallucinations as spiritual experiences. We cannot blame those seventh century Arabs for their mistakes; it was the parlance of the day. But today, in these days of science, we can certainly find out the true nature of Muhammad’s enlightenment. Freud was a hardcore atheist who had grown up without any religious indoctrination (Gay, 1987, p. 37; Riviere et al, 1960, p. xiii). This is one of the reasons; Freud’s view on subconscious certainly did not incorporate any hidden religious agenda, and he based his theory totally on the philosophy of science. Unfortunately, this was not the case for those early followers of Muhammad.
Psychoanalysts often discuss about the applicability of dream-analysis in the treatment of neurotic disorder. The dream gives a true picture of a subjective state, while the conscious mind denies that this state exists. The dream comes in as the expression of an involuntary psychic process not controlled by the conscious outlook. Hence a dream is not influenced by the patient’s views as to how things should be, but it simply tells how the matter stands. A patient, whose neurotic disorder unfits him for normal life, can be successfully treated only when the actual ca
use of his disorder is discovered which is possible through dream-analysis.
2.3: A Logical Explanation of Muhammad’s Mystic Experience
“You talk to God, you’re religious. God talks to you, you’re psychotic” .
Doris Egan (1955 –)
Undoubtedly, Muhammad’s first experience with Gabriel in the cave was either a conscious fabrication or a hallucination. The Hadith which had documented this divine confrontation inside a cave logically cannot be true. Any sensible reader will find a flaw in Muhammad’s claim. Bukhari recorded,
Narrated Aisha: The truth descended upon him while he was in the cave of Hira. The angel came to him and asked him to read. The Prophet replied, “I do not know how to read. The Prophet added, “The angel caught me (forcefully) and pressed me so hard that I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read and I replied, ‘I do not know how to read.’ Thereupon he caught me again and pressed me a second time till I could not bear it any more. He then released me and again asked me to read but again I replied, ‘I do not know how to read (or what shall I read)?’ Thereupon he caught me for the third time and pressed me, and then released me and said, ‘Read in the name of your Lord, who has created (all that exists) has created man from a clot. Read! And your Lord is the Most Generous.” (Q: 96.1, 96.2, 96.3). Then Allah’s Apostle returned with the Inspiration and with his heart beating severely. (Bukhari: 1.1.3).
Now the most distressing questions are;
1. The angel did not introduce himself as Gabriel. Then how did Muhammad know that it was really Gabriel?
2. Why the Gabriel did not know that Muhammad was illiterate? Why Allah did not tell him? Did Allah forget; is it possible for God to forget?